I am delighted to be speaking with Debbie Mumford today. Thanks for chatting with us today Debbie and welcome to FAR!

To start, will you please tell us a little bit about your current projects?

I have several novels simmering in the back of my mind at the moment. My muse has been busily feeding me plot lines for the last few weeks and it's just about time to choose my next project. Let's see, will it be the time travel romance, the urban fantasy, or futuristic young adult? Decisions, decisions…

Of all things you have accomplished, is there one accomplishment you are most proud of?

I'm very proud of Sorcha's Heart, the little story that kept on going! Sorcha began as a 5,000 word short story written for the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future contest. It made it to the quarter finals, but didn't have the *oomph* to make it to the finish.

I discovered the *oomph* when I expanded it into a novella and contracted it to Freya's Bower. FB liked it well enough to offer me a contract to continue the story. Dragons' Choice is the sequel.

I'm very pleased with the world and characters I created for Sorcha's Heart and Dragons' Choice. Who knew shapeshifting dragons would be so endearing? Both books have received excellent reviews.

From what do you derive the most inspiration for your writing?

Inspiration comes from all around me. The books I read, the places I go, the people I meet. But the source of inspiration is rarely recognizable in my finished story.

Take Glass Magic for example. My first e-book was a Freya's Bower Bites offering, meaning it consisted of two related short stories. Those stories centered on a faery who had been imprisoned in a pane of antique Irish glass. The core concept emerged on a cold winter day when the glass in the front door at my office fogged up. You could actually read a sign that had been removed a decade before. The phrase "ghost in the glass" popped into my mind and simmered until I wrote those stories for Freya's Bower.

What is the biggest misconception about being an author?

That writing is easy and anyone can do it. I must admit, I subscribed to that myth until I tried to write my first novel. I had an interesting idea; I was an intelligent woman with a computer; what more did I need? I quickly discovered it wasn't so simple. I required knowledge of craft, the self-discipline to complete the task, and perseverance in the face of a daunting amount of rejection. Writing is not for the faint of heart.

What is a typical day like for you?

Like many people in today's economy, I was recently laid off. This has been both hardship and blessing. A financial hardship, but a blessing for my writing. For the first time since I seriously began pursuing publication, I can dedicate several hours a day to writing. Whether that time is spent researching, world building, plotting, or actually producing pages of manuscript, it's a delight to have hours of uninterrupted time.

If you could go anywhere, be anyone, do anything for 24 hours, what would it be?

I would love to spend a day in Scotland. Actually, I'd need more than a day, but if twenty-four hours was all I could finagle, I'd make the most of it in the Highlands.

How did you celebrate selling your first book?

My husband and I celebrated with dinner and a movie. It was a wonderful evening; I can still feel the warm glow of affirmation. An editor thought my writing worthy of publication. Oh, yeah!

What was the hardest aspect of writing Dragons' Choice? How did you overcome it?

Dragons' Choice was a dream to write! I loved my characters and enjoyed the world I'd created for them. The only problem was that I'd intended for it to be Aislinn's story, and her brother Taran kept horning in! I finally decided to blend their tales. I wrote Aislinn's romance, and then I wrote Taran's. When I finished with the two story lines, I braided them together and wrote the necessary bridging scenes. I'd never written anything that way before, but it worked very nicely. My editor was pleased. In fact, Dragons' Choice required less editorial input than anything else I've published.

What are some of the challenges with writing a novella compared to a full length novel?

Remember when I talked about the misconception that anyone can write a novel? One of the things I mentioned was my need to learn my craft. Novellas are actually easier for me than novels because I learned craft from a writing group that worked solely with short fiction. I literally learned to write with short stories. Great way to get past the "newbie" errors. You spend a week writing a short story, turn it in for critique, and discover all the errors in technique you've committed. I'm a firm believer in the idea that you learn much faster when someone corrects your own words than you do reading concepts in a "how-to" book.

The down side? I have trouble writing long. I became so proficient at writing concisely, that novel length fiction is a challenge for me. They really are two separate art forms, the short story and the novel.

Congratulations! You just won a year off from work to travel anywhere in the world and write the story of your dreams. Where do you go, what type of book do you write, and what's the title?

Cool! Instead of twenty-four hours in Scotland, I get an entire year!! Woo Hoo!!

Oh, sorry. This is hypothetical, isn't it? *sigh*

I love fairy tales and mythology from all over the world, but I'm especially drawn to Celtic legend. I'd spend my year in Scotland absorbing the lore and I'd write my Druid trilogy. The first book I ever wrote was titled Druid's Quest. It was dreadful, but the concept was sound and someday, when my craft is sufficient, I will rewrite it and the two remaining novels that will complete the trilogy.

Is there anything else you would like to share with us today?

"Writers write." Even if you work full-time and have a vibrant personal life, you must make time to write. It's easy to get distracted and think, "I don't have time to write today." That's an invitation to failure. No matter how busy I am, I write every day. It might be only a single page of stream-of-consciousness nonsense, but I make time for it. A lot of great story ideas have come from those seemingly useless pages. Besides, writers write and the discipline of butt-in-chair-hands-on-keyboard is often the difference between success and failure. Onward and upward!

Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to answer some questions for us today Debbie! Readers can check out Debbie's website at http://www.debbiemumford.com/

Interviewed by: Tammy